Good evening StockBandits!
Modest strength provided some needed follow through today as the NAZ continued to build on Monday’s breakout. The S&P 500 also edged higher to reach its best levels of the year, briefly clearing the 1119 high set earlier this month, but the DJIA remained inside its trading range for another day. Volume was expectedly light, and we’re starting to see the diminishing participation in the market as the Christmas holiday nears.
The bulls have ignored multiple opportunities in recent weeks to start another leg higher, hesitating to add to their 2009 gains. All the while, they have done a good job of maintaining the underlying strength by not allowing any notable dips to occur. The result has been the creation of multi-week bases on the daily charts of each of the indexes, and if the buyers want it badly enough, they’re now poised to build on those bases with another advance. How far it carries though will depend on their ongoing resolve as we not only finish out the current year but begin a new one.
With tomorrow being my final trading session of 2009, I will not be adding any overnight positions (swing trades), but will instead stick with day trades in order to keep my timeframe abbreviated and my risk tight. The one-day plays lately have provided some very nice moves, such as last night’s LULU and SWK, so hopefully you’ve been able to participate in some of them.
Friendly reminder: this is the final Bandit Broadcast for December. I always take off the week between Christmas and New Year’s, but have no intentions of returning to trade on New Year’s Eve since it’s such a quiet day. The end of the year is a great time to reflect, rest, and renew goals for the coming year, so I’d encourage you to do the same. I also wrote about this on the blog. This way, we can hit the ground running from the very beginning in 2010.
Please leave your comments and/or questions below if you have any, I always enjoy the interaction and will be checking in periodically over the holidays.
Swing Trading Candidates:
NONE TONIGHT – Will add swing trades again starting in January, but end-of-year cross-currents tend to impact traditional technical analysis so I’ll hold no more positions during December.
Day Trading Candidates:
Here are the setups I’ll be eyeing tomorrow for intraday plays, but will not plan to hold them overnight as tomorrow will be my final trading day of 2009. As always, I’ll want to see price clear these levels before I’ll get involved. There are only a few setups I’m interested in, as again, I do expect volume to get lighter once again. My notes are on the charts themselves tonight, and we’ll return to the usual video format after the holidays.
There will be no Hit List tonight as we are 100% cash in terms of swing trades. Once we have open positions again on an overnight basis, Hit List posts will resume.
